“When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.” Exodus 33:9-11
One of my very best friends in the whole world came for a visit last weekend. We baked, played games, and spent time in the pool, both reminiscing and creating new memories. We shared laughter and deep discussions, made some great new recipes and enjoyed some old ones, attempted a few new duets on the piano and proved we had forgotten some of our old favorites. Friends. We are designed to have friends, relationships that encourage and challenge and lead us to be better than we are alone.
The Bible talks about friendship and relationship in many verses, but I love the description of Moses and God speaking to each other face to face, “as a man speaks to his friend.” Miraculous, really, that the Almighty Creator of the Universe would stoop to speak face to face with a man, and call him a friend. Ponder that thought for a moment. Greater than President Donald Trump calling you on the phone for a moment of your time, imagine God descending from on high to spend precious moments with you.
Imagine me whispering now, but I call that prayer. Long moments of time spent in the presence of God, my friend, no less miraculous than the face to face meetings with Moses. Scripture never states what God looked like to Moses. To the Israelites he appeared as a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. His presence was tangible. The Bible tells us the Israelites worshipped when they saw the pillar of cloud, and that Joshua refused to leave the tent when the presence had been there. Everyone in the camp recognized God, but he spoke face to face with Moses.
Do you think of yourself as a friend of God? When was the last time you spoke to him? Directly, face to face, so to speak? When was the last time you set aside time, a weekend or a day or an hour, to listen to God speak?
God speaks to us through His creation. He speaks through His word, His people, sermons and messages, but He longs to speak to us one on one, through prayer, intimately and routinely. His desire is for relationship with us. I know that is hard to fathom, but we must trust that His word is true and that he desires for us to be in community with Him. John 15 is clear that we are to abide in Him; in the vine, closely nurtured by God.
It is true that to visit with my friend over the weekend I had to set other things aside. I had to plan in the time, knowing I would have to catch up on other things later. But the beauty of the time together, the special moments, the face to face communication deepened our relationship and brought joy to both of us.
Most worthwhile things come with a cost. Time, money, blood, sweat and tears, it is the culmination of the task that makes the cost worthwhile. Relationships come with a cost. Our relationship with Jesus comes with a cost; first and foremost a price He paid, but secondarily a cost to us. A cost in time if we are to foster an intimate, growing relationship with God, our friend.
My encouragement to you this week is to make the time to spend ‘long moments’ with God, praying and listening. I don’t know what long moments will be for you, maybe 5 minutes will seem long, maybe an hour or more seems good. Turn off your phone and all other electronic devices. Get away from your real time people, find a quiet, empty space, and talk to God. You can use your Bible to get started, or you can recite the Lord’s prayer. Then listen and see what God has to say to you. You may be surprised to hear His voice.
Being the miracle working God that He is, I can share with you that God resurrected two of the cucumber plants in my garden. I had shared at the outset of planting season that all of my cucumber plants had died or been eaten by critters, but two managed to survive and we have harvested cucumbers! It surprised and excited us so much that my friend and I were able to make Bread & Butter Pickles over the weekend.
I had never made pickles before, but I remembered my mom making Bread & Butter Pickles when I was a child. I love the name and the concept behind this pickled cucumber, basic, everyday goodness to add to your table. We found a recipe and followed it as closely as we could and were pleasantly surprised by the ease and tastiness of these pickles. We opted to not can them, just gift them to those who would use them up in the next three months.
Bread & Butter Pickles
- 2 1/2 pounds pickling cucumbers, we used our home grown mystery variety
- 1/4 cup kosher salt, or pickling salt
- 1 pound white or yellow onions, thinly sliced
- 1 1/4 cups white distilled vinegar
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 1/4 cups sugar
- 3 Tbsp pickling spice
Pick or buy firm cucumbers and wash them thoroughly. Cut off both ends of each cucumber until you reach the part of the cuke with a nice slicing diameter. Weigh out 2 !/2 pounds of cucumbers and 1 pound of peeled, sliced onions.
Slice cucumbers uniformly and place in a large bowl. Add sliced onions and kosher or pickling salt and mix thoroughly, with your hand. Using Kosher or Pickling salt is crucial as regular salt with cause the cucumbers to discolor. Once cukes, onions and salt are well mixed, place a thin tea towel over the mixture and add a layer of ice cubes to the bowl. Place bowl in refrigerator for four hours.
Just before the four hours are up, prepare the jars you will place the pickles in. If you are adept at canning, by all means prepare to can the pickles! If, like me, you just want to make a few pickles to share and enjoy, thoroughly clean enough jars to hold 2 1/2 quarts of pickles. Dry jars, then fill with hot, boiling water. Discard water and dry again with a clean towel. Jars are now ready to hold the pickles.
Remove the cucumbers from the refrigerator at the four hour mark. Remove the ice and rinse and drain the cucumbers and onions. The idea here is to remove any residual salt. Rinse and drain a second time.
Place the sugar, vinegars and pickling spice in a large stockpot. Bring to a boil, stirring to ensure that all sugar is dissolved. Once sugar is dissolved, add the cucumbers and onions. Bring the mixture to a boil. As soon as the cucumbers begin to boil, turn off heat. Use a slotted spoon to place cucumbers and onions in your clean, dry jars. Once all the vegetables are in the jars, pour remaining syrup over them to fill the jar within an inch of the top.
Use a clean cloth or paper towel to wipe any syrup from around the rim of the jar, then seal with the two part lids. Allow to rest at room temperature for a few hours, then refrigerate. Pickles will improve in taste over the next few weeks, but should be eaten within three months if not canned.
We really enjoyed the process of making and eating the pickles.